Solo Saga: Anton's Quest
by VibeQuake
Summary: My name is Anton and I am the youngest son and child of OWCA's top agent. I cannot be an OWCA agent because of a medical condition I have. I have to watch my twin sister Pippa begin Basic Training without me. It's agony because I know that I have nothing else to offer OWCA apart from my stupid eidetic memory. But is there really no way to usefully implement that in OWCA? Two-shot
1. Chapter 1

**Anton's POV**

When I was a baby until just before I was due to begin my OWCA training, I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life. Sure, I wanted to be an OWCA agent, but…there was (and still is) the matter of my condition. I won't go into detail now but because of my condition, there was a high chance that I wouldn't be declared physically fit to begin OWCA training.

Sure enough, that is exactly what happened just hours ago. I can still picture Apollo's apologetic face as he told me that I can't be a field agent.

I've gone up to the roof to think about my options. I desperately don't want to be the first platypus in my family to not join OWCA. I know that my older sister Quinn only joined OWCA when she was about eight years old, but she's part of OWCA now. If I don't find some way that I can help OWCA, I will be the only platypus in my family to not be a secret agent. I can't have that.

Standing up, I head down the stairs and into the top floor of OWCA, where the two gyms are. I see my mother just coming out of the BT gym, so I pick up my pace and catch up with her. "Hi, Mom."

She turns. "Oh hello, Anton. I was just coming to find you, actually. Apollo told me the news. How are you feeling about it?"

I shrug and look down at the ground. "As well as can be expected after being told I can't do the one thing I want to do."

"It's okay, hon." Mom takes me into her arms and rocks me like she did when I was a baby. "We'll find some way for you to help OWCA."

"But how?" I ask miserably. "I can't be like my siblings. I can't become the fastest, the strongest, the stealthiest, or the agilest. They're all something and I'm nothing. Even Pip is training to be a full OWCA agent, and I'm stuck being nothing."

"Don't talk like that," Mom says, squeezing me a little tighter. "We'll find something for you. But even if we can't, you don't have to be part of OWCA for us to be proud of you."

"Yes I do," I argue. "Quinn told me you spent four years of her life hounding her into joining OWCA, even though she said specifically that she didn't want to."

Mom stiffens. "We made a mistake," she says slowly. "I know that now. Your father knows that now. That's why I'm telling you this: no matter what you choose to do, we'll be proud of you, I promise."

I pull away from my mother. "I'm sorry, Mom. But I just won't feel like I'm something unless I'm helping OWCA in some way."

Mom nods sadly. "I understand, Anton. If you need to talk to anyone, you can come to me or your father or any of your siblings. Quinn or Hermes may be the ones to talk to if you're concerned."

I nod. "Thank you," I say as Mom walks away.

"HEY ANTON!" bellows my twin sister's voice, causing me to yelp and jump a metre in the air. Upon landing, my foot twists and I fall over, hitting my hip hard. I grimace as I look at Pippa, who has appeared in the doorway of the gym. "Whatcha doin' down there?" she asks with a sly smile on her face.

"Getting up," I reply as I climb to my feet. "How's training going?"

"It's going mostly okay," Pippa says. "I mean, I've already annoyed the instructor and most of my class with my babbling, but that's to be expected."

Despite her words, she looks and sounds quite down. I squeeze my twin sister's shoulder. "You'll be great," I say encouragingly. "After all, it doesn't matter in a fight if you babble or not. If anything, babbling helps because it will either distract the enemy or enrage them. Either way, you get the upper hand."

Pippa blinks hopefully at me. "Really? You think so?"

"Distracting your enemy is one of the best things you can do in a fight," I tell my twin. "Sometimes, it can be better than all the special fighting moves in existence."

"Thanks, Anty."

I put on a smile as my sister races back into the BT gym, a smile that quickly vanishes. _Anty._ I wish she'd stop calling me that. It makes me feel weird.

I peer into the trainee gym and watch as my sister—her mouth moving so fast that it's almost a blur—floors a dog trainee in one-to-one combat. This makes me feel rather depressed because I can't do that myself, so I go over to the other gym to see if there's a punching bag free, and I see all four of my other siblings in there, training. I sigh deeply and head for the stairs. On my way, I see a door slightly ajar. It looks like it leads to a room that I haven't been in before, so I push the door fully open and peer in, and my eyes widen in wonder.

It's a library.

The room isn't very big. It's about twice the size of Major Monogram's office, but all four walls are lined with bookshelves, and on those bookshelves lie thousands and thousands of books, ceiling to floor. I can see some kind of categorising system in place: it seems that all the books are non-fiction, but they're sorted in terms of their subject, for example mathematics, engineering, history, geography, etc.

I pick one of the books off the shelf: _Hacking101._ I sit down in a rocking chair by the window and open up the book. The first page is full of complicated-looking formulae and graphics, all illustrated in some way. It looks very technical and complicated.

I understand it all.

I feel a smile come onto my face.

I may not be able to become the fastest, the strongest, the stealthiest, or the agilest, but I know there's something I _can_ become: the smartest.


	2. Chapter 2

I learn something about myself that day: I am very fast at both reading and learning. When the grandfather clock in the library strikes seven pm, I have already read and learnt both the basic AND the expert levels of hacking. I feel like I could hack into the Pentagon if I wanted to. Of course, I'll need experience in this field before I can truly call myself a master.

Realising the time, I get up off the rocking chair, put back the seven books on hacking that I read, and take out three rather heavy books on engineering. One of those books is _Engineering For Dummies_ , another is called _Physics and Maths For Engineers_ , and the final one is called _So You Want To Be An Engineer?_ so I have quite a mixture. Just as I'm about to leave, I catch sight of a book called _How To Be A Rocket Scientist-Level Engineer_ , which contrasts nicely with _Engineering For Dummies_ , so I take that one and leave _So You Want To Be An Engineer?_ behind.

As I'm walking towards the stairs, I see one of my older sisters up ahead of me, going into the stairwell. "Quinn!" I call loudly, just as my grip on the three books loosens and all three books tumble to the ground.

I think that that is what causes Quinn to hear me, not my call. She turns and comes back to help me pick up the books. "What are you doing with books on engineering?" she asks.

"Learning," I reply. "I can't be a field agent so I'm going to try and do some stuff on the technical side."

Quinn gives me a smile. "Good thinking. As I learnt, there's always a way to help OWCA without having to fight or go out in the-Anton, what the heck?!"

I look at my sister, confused. "What?"

I see that she's pointing to the side of my right hip. "What happened to you?!"

I look down at my hip and am startled to see a massive black and blue bruise staining the seafoam green fur there. "Pip gave me a fright and I fell over," I explain. "I landed on my hip."

Quinn's eyebrows knit together in an expression of sympathy. "That's why you can't be a field agent, isn't it? Apollo didn't tell me or let me see the results of your test. You're haemophiliac."

I nod.

"Who knows?"

"In the family? Just me, you, and our parents."

"Not even Pip?" Quinn asks.

I shake my head. "Well, she does know that I'm haemophiliac but she doesn't know what it means, and I didn't want to explain. All she knows about it is that I can't become an OWCA agent because of it."

"That means Mom and Dad must be carriers of it," Quinn muses. "It's genetic."

"Yeah it is," I agree.

"Strange how only you inherited it out of six children. Especially since you're one of twins."

"We're not identical twins," I remind her. "If we were and I had it, she'd have it too, because our DNA would be genetically identical. But since our DNA isn't identical, it's not exactly a stretch that only I out of six siblings inherited it."

Quinn is staring at me in confusion.

"Hey, I've read every book on haemophilia that I could find. I know everything there is to know about this stupid genetic disease."

Quinn helps me carry my books down the stairs. When we reach the ground floor, I see Teddy, Hazel, Hermes, and Mom waiting by the front door. I hang back slightly as Quinn goes to greet them. My siblings don't like Pippa, and they don't much like me either. However, there is one difference between the way they treat Pip and the way they treat me: they're extra snappy with me when they're in a bad mood, but even seeing Pippa PUTS them in a bad mood. It makes me sick, seeing the way they treat their own sister.

I turn as I hear footsteps, and Dad and Pippa exit the stairwell. Dad has a cross expression and Pippa looks like she's about to cry. This makes me angry. Like I said before, interaction with Pippa can make people grumpy, even when she literally does nothing wrong. Today looks like one of those times. Dad raises an eyebrow at the three large books I'm carrying. "When do you expect to finish those by?" he inquires.

"Tomorrow evening," I reply truthfully. "That's if I read all day."

"You're going to read all day?" Dad asks.

"There's nothing else for me to do," I say pointedly. "Not since I can't be an OWCA agent."

"You don't have to-."

"I don't have to be an OWCA agent for you to be proud of me," I snap, seeing the tear tracks down my twin sister's face and getting angry with my father. "I know, Dad. But here's the thing: I know it's not true. Mom said you guys made a mistake with Quinn, but you haven't learnt from it. I can see slight disappointment in your face right now. If I don't become an OWCA agent, you're going to be disappointed in me. You're going to act happy and proud, but we'll all know the bitter truth, so why not just spare all of us the extra pain and just come out with it?"

"Anton!" Dad says, shocked. "What are you talking about?"

I shake my head. "Don't act proud of me when you're not," I say simply. "And don't lie about it. One thing I can do is tell when people are lying."

Dad is still staring, shocked, at me. I gather up my books into comfortable positions in my arms and walk away. My siblings and Mom back up as I walk through the door. As I head towards Bodicote—the OWCA village—I hear someone running to catch up.

"Are you really going to read all those books before tomorrow evening?" Pippa asks, awed.

"Yes, yes I am," I reply. "I can't be an OWCA agent so I have to find some other way to fill my time. Who knows: I might even join OWCA as an engineer or inventor. You know I like to tinker."

"You do," Pippa giggles. "But mostly it's with scrap metal and the odd nail you find around the house. Are you going to up your game a little bit?"

"I've always wanted to," I answer truthfully. "I've always wanted to make and fix things better than I currently can. Who knows: maybe it'll finally convince Mom and Dad that I can be worthy without being physically fit." I interrupt what Pippa's about to say by stopping and looking her in the eyes. "What did Dad say to you?"

"Nothing," Pippa says, looking down at the ground, all the light gone from her face.

"He must have said or done something to you; you were in tears when you came down the stairs," I say. "Tell me what he said."

"He-he was watching me training and I did a really good move and Jayne praised me so when I went over to Dad, I expected him to praise me too but all he did was point out everything I did wrong or could have done better and he didn't even mention the move that I did well," babbles Pippa, almost crying again. "I-It was just disappointing because I'd been expecting and hoping for praise, that's all."

"Okay." I put my books down on the ground and put my arm around my twin sister. "Tomorrow, I'm going to sit in on your training session and watch your progress. I'll be fair; I'll praise you when you deserve it and give you constructive feedback when you need it. Okay?"

"Okay," smiles Pippa. "Thanks, bro."

"No problem, sis. Now can you carry this book for me?" I pick up one of the books and put it in my sister's hands.

"Oof! You gave me the heaviest one!"

"You want two books or the heaviest book? You decide."

Pippa sighs. "I knew it was too good to be true. You gave me the heaviest book."

"Seriously, I'll swap with you if you want. You can carry these two books, whose combined weight is heavier than that one book."

"Why can't you carry all of them?" Pippa complains.

"Because both of us want me to be in that training session tomorrow, and I can't do that if I have a bruised spine because I fell backwards while trying to carry too many books," I say, smirking. "C'mon, it's not even a quarter of a mile back to the house. Besides, it's good weight training."

"Ugh."

"You really do have a way with words," I chirp, earning me a nudge from my sister. "Hey, I'm delicate. Don't touch me."

Pippa nudged me again, though not as hard this time, in the same spot.

"Great, I'm probably going to have a bruise there tomorrow." I sigh theatrically. "Oh, the humanity!"

"You need to get a life."

"I'm dying!" I sink to the ground carefully and dramatically drop my books on the floor. "Help me!"

"Bye," Pippa says, beginning to walk away.

I get up off the floor and retrieve the books. Grinning, I follow my sister. She may be annoying and really chatty, but I wouldn't trade her for anyone.


End file.
